I knew a woman whose coffee

Would not wake a dreaming worm,

Another who brewed hers strong

Enough an elephant emerged

Wired for eternity. I loved

Them both, but I brewed my

Own for a middle darkness:

Just a cup-like haiku.

 

Spring comes when coyotes

Sprawl crunched dead on roadsides

Around Tucson’s golden banks

Of Palo Verde blossoms

That brighten the curbs.

 

A flapping coat of a chef fired

A bullet through his head

Seated in the forest.

I knew that location well—

Sobbed on a barrel

Before yanking my life free

To live with pull and pulchritude.

 

Dry pages saved me

Often from wet pain—

A teen, I left the woods

To live with deliberation,

My song of self among others.

The best hearts of my generation

Mad with beer and guns,

But my feet kiss this earth,

When I stumbled

From divorce dust in my forties.

 

I knew love that demanded

The world should listen,

And love that crept

Like a boy of eight

Shyly clinging to the couch arm

For a hug of paternal pride.

Now, I get along fine

Without a fatted account

Of dollars America,

Guessing I’m a real man anyhow.